‘That’s my sister’s car. He was trying to show off by bringin me for a spin. Next thing he was hittin a 140 on the town roads and I says: There’s a smell of smoke, I says, will ya stop! – “Be grand he goes. Relax.”

‘Do you drive yourself?’

‘I only ever had three cars and I never crashed any of them.’ She said.

‘That’s good going.’

‘Well the first one I had a few small crashes, knocked off a few wingmirrors and that, but nothin major. The second one was a nice car but the engine went in that cos a dodgy fucker sold it to me and the third one the guards took off me.’

‘Oh, did you get caught doing something wrong?’

‘No tax or NCT.’

‘Yeah, they don’t like that.’

‘Or insurance.’

‘Sure the price of insurance now….’

‘Oh well I never had insurance in the first place.’

‘No?’

‘No, or never had tax or nothin.’

‘You just never bothered?’

‘No, I’ve no licence you see. They don’t give you that kinda stuff if you’ve no licence.’

‘Was it taken off you? For drink or somethin?’

‘No. Nothin like that. I just never got it in the first place.’

‘Oh.’

‘Yeah, I’m not into all that theory test stuff. And then do the twelve lessons, and then do a test? And pay everything else then? It’s much handier to get a car and just start driving around.’

‘Tis I suppose. Cheaper anyway.’

‘Sure how else are you supposed to survive in this country? I’m grand here. This is my place. Drop me off at the corner. Thanks.’

(Includes Worldwide Delivery and Postage) Charlie’s out on bail and back on the sauce. Still devastated over the events of El Niño, he drinks to kill the pain and robs all he can to feel alive. But the past won’t give him peace. The police want him in jail. Kramer’s old crew have a price on his head, and his new employer has big plans to carve out his own niche in the criminal underworld — with Charlie at the helm. Roped into a series of audacious heists and ingenious schemes, he finds himself involved with illegal diesel in Westmeath, stolen cash machines in Mayo and violent debt collection in Galway. Couple that with his regular income of stealing wallets and robbing shops and you have a cyclone of a man roaring down a path to destruction. And bringing everybody with him. And then there’s Karena. The beautiful girl that may save him — but maybe she should know better? At times dark, others touching, and often comic, Mokusatsu is a fiction readers feast of Irish Crime Writing.